In the peaceful setting of Mountain Park Cemetery, Andy McCracken, a man in his 70s, takes a moment to reflect before dialing his father’s old number on a vintage rotary telephone one sunny day in late July. Standing beside a disconnected landline inside a wooden structure near a graveyard in Alberta’s Rocky Mountain foothills, he engages in a one-way conversation using a symbolic “wind phone” that bridges the gap between the living and the deceased.

Situated at nearly 1,900 meters above sea level, Mountain Park Cemetery in Yellowhead County, Canada, now hosts the highest elevation wind phone in North America. Yellowhead County recently installed this unique communication tool at the end of July. Andy and his wife Anne McCracken, residents of Edson, Alta., have chosen Mountain Park Cemetery as their final resting place. Andy’s roots tie back to a Coal Branch town near Mountain Park, where his father served as the mine doctor.

Expressing gratitude and love to his late father through the wind phone, Andy reminisces about his birth in Luscar, Alta., in 1953 and the shared love for the mountains. The McCrackens have selected a plot with a view of Cheviot Mountain, looking forward to the day when they will be laid to rest in this serene location.

Mountain Park, established in 1911, was once a bustling community connected by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway until the closure of the coal mine in 1950. Today, only the cemetery remains, with 269 documented burials dating back to 1913. The town’s vibrant past, including a school, hospital, library, and hockey rink, has faded into history, leaving behind a tranquil landscape reclaimed by nature.

As Madison Sharman, heritage co-ordinator for Yellowhead County, shares stories of Mountain Park’s past, she highlights the town’s reliance on the railway for supplies and social connections. Residents found ways to entertain themselves in the remote wilderness, engaging in foot races and traveling to nearby towns for community gatherings.

The cemetery at Mountain Park serves as a poignant reminder of the hardships faced by early settlers, with infant burial sites and tragic stories from mining accidents. Despite the challenges of frontier life, volunteers like Mary Salzsauler have worked tirelessly to restore and maintain the cemetery, preserving the history of those laid to rest.

Yellowhead County now oversees Mountain Park Cemetery’s upkeep, ensuring that the stories of those buried there live on. The McCrackens and other residents find solace in knowing that their final resting place will be among the peaceful surroundings of Mountain Park, where every story whispered into the wind becomes a part of the landscape once more.